Brink (video game)
Encyclopedia
Brink is a first-person shooter
video game developed by Splash Damage
for Microsoft Windows
, PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
. It was released in North America on May 10, 2011, in Australia
on May 12, in Europe
on May 13 and in Japan
on June 16.
In Brink, two factions, Resistance and Security, battle in a once-utopia
n city called The Ark, a floating city
above the waters of a flooded Earth.
Brink has Steamworks integration, including Valve Anti-Cheat
. It runs on id Tech 4 and has an updated rendering framework with improved support for multiple CPU cores. Brink is a first-person shooter
with a focus on parkour
-style movement. Online multiplayer servers hold up to 16 players; players can play cooperatively or competitively, or against artificially-intelligent bots
.
. SMART allows for more adaptive parkour and freerunning, similar to Prototype
.
There are four character class
es: Soldier, Medic, Engineer, and Operative. The same class system could also be found in the previous titles Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
. The Soldier resupplies teammates, can throw molotov cocktails and flash-bang grenades, and can complete destroy objectives by using explosives. The Engineer buffs his teammates' weapons and can supply them with armor, builds stationary turrets and plants landmines, and can complete repair and build objectives. The Medic heals teammates, revives downed teammates, and buffs their teammates' health. The Operative interrogates fallen opponents to get intel on enemy locations, performs acts of sabotage, and disguises himself as the enemy. Players can customize their characters and buy special abilities with experience point
s, which are earned by completing objectives. The abilities that the player can buy for their character are either "universal" (abilities that the player will be able to use regardless of their class during a mission) and class-specific (abilities that the player can use only when they are in that class). All characters in the beginning will have the "basic kits" of each class so that they can perform the essential objectives only. The class-specific abilities that they buy, however, can enhance their ability and their role in a certain class, potentially making objectives easier to complete and allowing for a greater gain in experience points. The same experience points can be earned in both single-player and multiplayer, adding a special "online bonus" to the player's experience points after completing a mission online. Bethesda claims that players can create a total of 102 quadrillion unique character combinations, if minor variations are factored in.
There are several appearance combinations that a character can have. One of the most significant appearance categories is body type. There are three distinct body types in Brink: heavy, medium, and light. Each body type has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Heavy body types are very bulky and have significant muscle mass. They can handle all weapons in the game. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as a heavy machine or gatling gun, and their backup weapon can be as powerful as an automatic rifle. Heavy body types also have the highest health. However, they have slowest sprint speed, and their parkour abilities are only limited to vaulting over small obstacles that are at waist height or below.
Medium body types have less muscle mass and are thinner than heavies. They can handle most weapons. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as an automatic rifle, and their backup weapon can be as powerful as a sub-machine gun. A medium's health is lower than heavy body types, but their sprint speeds are much faster and their parkour abilities allow them to clear most obstacles at head height.
Light body types have even less muscle mass and are thinner than mediums. They are also very limited in the weapons they can handle. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as a sub-machine gun, and their backup weapon is strictly limited to a pistol (however, handling a pistol, regardless of body type or class, will allow the player to use a knife as a far more damaging melee attack). They also have the lowest health. However, they have the fastest sprint speed, and their parkour abilities allow them to wall-hop so that they can clear obstacles at greater speed and reach areas that other body types cannot.
The Squad Commander system gives players context-sensitive objectives. A variety of factors—where the player is, how skilled he is, his overall mission progress, etc.—determine what objectives will be available. During both on- and offline play, the player can defend one of his faction's command posts or capture an enemy's command post.
There are two types of command posts: health and supply. Each team will have 1 command post where reinforcements will start. That command post cannot be captured by the other team and any enemy that tries will be killed by indestructible turrets. However, there will be a few health and supply command posts that can be captured. If a player captures a command post, it will buff all of their teammates' health or supplies. If a player buys certain abilities for their character, then upon capture they can upgrade the command post (an engineer's special ability) or firewall it (an operative's special ability).
An Objective Wheel shows the main objective in yellow and will show a checkpoint which the player will need to go achieve that primary objective. The primary objectives are essential to completing the mission. Depending on what side the player is on and what mission the player is doing, there are only a certain amount of primary objectives that you can allow the opposing team to complete before you fail the mission. There are also secondary objectives. Secondary objectives are non-essential to the mission but can make the mission easier to complete. These include capturing an enemy's command post, constructing/destroying a barricade, hacking a door to flank the enemy, or repairing a lift to provide an alternative route. Each player has an objective wheel in his inventory and will, on certain missions, be timed to achieve the goal that must be completed. Each Objective gives Experience points (xp) upon completion. During Game play you earn the experience and unlock new abilities/Custom gear to put on your custom character.
2010, Splash Damage announced Brink's digital pre-order bonuses for several digital retailers in North America as well as Europe. These bonuses will help expand the players starting customization options, with the Doom
(GameStop
), Fallout (Best Buy
), Psycho (Amazon.com
and Direct2Drive
) and Spec Ops (Walmart and Steam) packs. The "Doom" and "Spec Ops" packs are both available in Nordic retailers. Little is known whether the pre-order bonuses will restrict players who did not pre-order from a certain retailer, or if the pre-order bonuses are just early access at the moment. In the United Kingdom, where Walmart does not operate, GAME released a "special edition" which, while costing more than the normal edition, included the Spec Ops and DOOM packs.
The Agents of Change DLC will cost nothing on all platforms for the first two weeks of release to stimulate more players into the online servers, however after the first two weeks the DLC will cost $9.99 USD to download.
The pack contains additional content for the game, including new maps, abilities, attachments for weapons, and clothing and also raise the level cap from 20 to 24.
Brink received mixed to average reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic
gave the PlayStation 3
version 69.62% and 72/100, the Xbox 360
version 69.37% and 68/100 and the PC version 69.33% and 70/100. Eurogamer
gave it an 8/10, saying that Brink was "an exceptional team shooter, smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style." GameSpy gave Brink 4 out of 5 stars. Saying that "Brink has the potential to become your new favorite FPS." Videogamer.com gave Brink a 8/10 saying that "Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres." The Guardian gave Brink 4 stars out of 5, they praised Brink by saying "Brink deserves to be ranked among the finest co-op games available." Official Xbox Magazine UK gave Brink 4 stars out of 5, saying that Brink is "A meticulously designed Live shooter." Gaming Nexus gave Brink a B+ saying that Brink is "the most solid and well-balanced core gameplay yet from Splash Damage." Other reviews were very positive, calling Brink the best multiplayer FPS since Battlefield: Bad Company 2
or saying that "Brink is no less than an excellent multiplayer game".
The game was also, however, criticized as being incomplete or unpolished, with GamePro
saying that "Brink is about two or three updates from being one of my favorite shooters of all time, but I'm not reviewing the game I want it to be. I'm reviewing the game that it is, and what it is is something just short of being the awesome experience that I want".
Some reviews were very critical. Joystiq
gave the game a score of 2 out of 5 stars, stating that "Brink's artistically compelling soldiers can sail effortlessly over obstacles, landing acrobatic maneuvers never before seen in the genre with effortless poise—unfortunately, just about everything else lands flat on its face." 1UP
gave Brink a D, commenting that "Brink is unfinished. And that doesn't mean it's full of technical problems. Well, it's got those too. But mostly, it's just an unpolished, poorly executed mess of ideas." Giant Bomb
also gave Brink 2 out of 5 stars, with site founder Jeff Gerstmann noting that "Flat combat and a lack of variety are just two of the things that make Brink such a disappointment."
Other reviewers criticized the character customization system for not allowing female characters. Brad Gallaway of GameCritics.com said, "...there's something very disturbing to me about having a choice between fifty different pieces of upper torso clothing or including an entire gender, and then deciding to go with the clothing. What does such a decision say about the attitude of Brink's developers, and the studio itself?" Critical Kate of CriticalHit! said, "For a company to boast how impressively customizable the characters in their first-person shooter are, only to then exclude half the population from having their character be the same gender as themselves, doesn’t exactly say to female gamers “you are welcome here.”"
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game developed by Splash Damage
Splash Damage
Splash Damage is an independently-owned British game development company that specializes in multiplayer first-person shooter games. The studio is best known as the creator of the Enemy Territory franchise for id Software.-History:...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. It was released in North America on May 10, 2011, in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on May 12, in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on May 13 and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on June 16.
In Brink, two factions, Resistance and Security, battle in a once-utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n city called The Ark, a floating city
Seasteading
Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation....
above the waters of a flooded Earth.
Brink has Steamworks integration, including Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat, abbreviated to VAC, is an anti-cheat solution developed by Valve Corporation as a component of the Steam game development platform.-History:...
. It runs on id Tech 4 and has an updated rendering framework with improved support for multiple CPU cores. Brink is a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
with a focus on parkour
Parkour
Parkour is a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Originally developed in France, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping...
-style movement. Online multiplayer servers hold up to 16 players; players can play cooperatively or competitively, or against artificially-intelligent bots
Computer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
.
Gameplay
Splash Damage developed the SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) System. By noting a player's position and predicting what he is trying to do, the system lets players navigate complex environments without equally complex input. By holding down the SMART button, a player will automatically clear obstacles without having to use complex controls such as in Mirror's EdgeMirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge is a single-player first person action-adventure video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was announced on July 10, 2007, and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008. A Microsoft Windows version was released...
. SMART allows for more adaptive parkour and freerunning, similar to Prototype
Prototype (video game)
Prototype is an open world action video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision. The game was released in North America on June 9, 2009, and in southwestern parts of North America as well as Oceania on June 10, and was released in Europe on June 12.The game is set in New...
.
There are four character class
Character class
In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
es: Soldier, Medic, Engineer, and Operative. The same class system could also be found in the previous titles Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a free and open source multiplayer first-person shooter video game set during World War II...
and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a first-person shooter video game, and is the follow-up to the 2005 title Quake 4. It is also the first game in the series to be rated T by the ESRB...
. The Soldier resupplies teammates, can throw molotov cocktails and flash-bang grenades, and can complete destroy objectives by using explosives. The Engineer buffs his teammates' weapons and can supply them with armor, builds stationary turrets and plants landmines, and can complete repair and build objectives. The Medic heals teammates, revives downed teammates, and buffs their teammates' health. The Operative interrogates fallen opponents to get intel on enemy locations, performs acts of sabotage, and disguises himself as the enemy. Players can customize their characters and buy special abilities with experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s, which are earned by completing objectives. The abilities that the player can buy for their character are either "universal" (abilities that the player will be able to use regardless of their class during a mission) and class-specific (abilities that the player can use only when they are in that class). All characters in the beginning will have the "basic kits" of each class so that they can perform the essential objectives only. The class-specific abilities that they buy, however, can enhance their ability and their role in a certain class, potentially making objectives easier to complete and allowing for a greater gain in experience points. The same experience points can be earned in both single-player and multiplayer, adding a special "online bonus" to the player's experience points after completing a mission online. Bethesda claims that players can create a total of 102 quadrillion unique character combinations, if minor variations are factored in.
There are several appearance combinations that a character can have. One of the most significant appearance categories is body type. There are three distinct body types in Brink: heavy, medium, and light. Each body type has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Heavy body types are very bulky and have significant muscle mass. They can handle all weapons in the game. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as a heavy machine or gatling gun, and their backup weapon can be as powerful as an automatic rifle. Heavy body types also have the highest health. However, they have slowest sprint speed, and their parkour abilities are only limited to vaulting over small obstacles that are at waist height or below.
Medium body types have less muscle mass and are thinner than heavies. They can handle most weapons. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as an automatic rifle, and their backup weapon can be as powerful as a sub-machine gun. A medium's health is lower than heavy body types, but their sprint speeds are much faster and their parkour abilities allow them to clear most obstacles at head height.
Light body types have even less muscle mass and are thinner than mediums. They are also very limited in the weapons they can handle. Their primary weapon can be as powerful as a sub-machine gun, and their backup weapon is strictly limited to a pistol (however, handling a pistol, regardless of body type or class, will allow the player to use a knife as a far more damaging melee attack). They also have the lowest health. However, they have the fastest sprint speed, and their parkour abilities allow them to wall-hop so that they can clear obstacles at greater speed and reach areas that other body types cannot.
The Squad Commander system gives players context-sensitive objectives. A variety of factors—where the player is, how skilled he is, his overall mission progress, etc.—determine what objectives will be available. During both on- and offline play, the player can defend one of his faction's command posts or capture an enemy's command post.
There are two types of command posts: health and supply. Each team will have 1 command post where reinforcements will start. That command post cannot be captured by the other team and any enemy that tries will be killed by indestructible turrets. However, there will be a few health and supply command posts that can be captured. If a player captures a command post, it will buff all of their teammates' health or supplies. If a player buys certain abilities for their character, then upon capture they can upgrade the command post (an engineer's special ability) or firewall it (an operative's special ability).
An Objective Wheel shows the main objective in yellow and will show a checkpoint which the player will need to go achieve that primary objective. The primary objectives are essential to completing the mission. Depending on what side the player is on and what mission the player is doing, there are only a certain amount of primary objectives that you can allow the opposing team to complete before you fail the mission. There are also secondary objectives. Secondary objectives are non-essential to the mission but can make the mission easier to complete. These include capturing an enemy's command post, constructing/destroying a barricade, hacking a door to flank the enemy, or repairing a lift to provide an alternative route. Each player has an objective wheel in his inventory and will, on certain missions, be timed to achieve the goal that must be completed. Each Objective gives Experience points (xp) upon completion. During Game play you earn the experience and unlock new abilities/Custom gear to put on your custom character.
Release and marketing
Bethesda and Splash Damage originally planned to release the game sometime in spring 2010, but pushed it back to fall 2010, before delaying it again. They later announced a release date of May 17, 2011. In April, a month before release, they pulled the release forward a week to May 10, citing early completion of the game and a desire to get it in players’ hands as soon as possible.Pre-order bonuses
At QuakeConQuakeCon
QuakeCon is a bring-your-own-computer computer gaming event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty...
2010, Splash Damage announced Brink's digital pre-order bonuses for several digital retailers in North America as well as Europe. These bonuses will help expand the players starting customization options, with the Doom
Doom (series)
Doom is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by id Software. The series focuses on the exploits of an unnamed space marine operating under the UAC , who fights hordes of undead and demons in order to survive...
(GameStop
GameStop
GameStop Corporation is an American video game and entertainment software retailer. The company, whose headquarters is in Grapevine, Texas, United States, operates 6,500 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New...
), Fallout (Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
), Psycho (Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and Direct2Drive
Direct2Drive
Direct2Drive is an online game store offering PC videogames via direct download. On May 25, 2011, Gamefly acquired Direct2Drive from IGN Entertainment Group .- Competition with Steam :...
) and Spec Ops (Walmart and Steam) packs. The "Doom" and "Spec Ops" packs are both available in Nordic retailers. Little is known whether the pre-order bonuses will restrict players who did not pre-order from a certain retailer, or if the pre-order bonuses are just early access at the moment. In the United Kingdom, where Walmart does not operate, GAME released a "special edition" which, while costing more than the normal edition, included the Spec Ops and DOOM packs.
Patches
Bethesda released a day one patch to solve graphical problems experienced in the game. A patch was released a few days later in an attempt to fix the connectivity problems by limiting the number of human players allowed in a game.Agents of Change
The first DLC for Brink, released on 3 August 2011 for the Xbox via Xbox Live and 4 August 2011 for the PlayStation 3.The Agents of Change DLC will cost nothing on all platforms for the first two weeks of release to stimulate more players into the online servers, however after the first two weeks the DLC will cost $9.99 USD to download.
The pack contains additional content for the game, including new maps, abilities, attachments for weapons, and clothing and also raise the level cap from 20 to 24.
Reception
Brink received mixed to average reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 69.62% and 72/100, the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version 69.37% and 68/100 and the PC version 69.33% and 70/100. Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
gave it an 8/10, saying that Brink was "an exceptional team shooter, smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style." GameSpy gave Brink 4 out of 5 stars. Saying that "Brink has the potential to become your new favorite FPS." Videogamer.com gave Brink a 8/10 saying that "Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres." The Guardian gave Brink 4 stars out of 5, they praised Brink by saying "Brink deserves to be ranked among the finest co-op games available." Official Xbox Magazine UK gave Brink 4 stars out of 5, saying that Brink is "A meticulously designed Live shooter." Gaming Nexus gave Brink a B+ saying that Brink is "the most solid and well-balanced core gameplay yet from Splash Damage." Other reviews were very positive, calling Brink the best multiplayer FPS since Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by the Swedish firm EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS and Mac OS X systems. It is a direct sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company and is part of the...
or saying that "Brink is no less than an excellent multiplayer game".
The game was also, however, criticized as being incomplete or unpolished, with GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
saying that "Brink is about two or three updates from being one of my favorite shooters of all time, but I'm not reviewing the game I want it to be. I'm reviewing the game that it is, and what it is is something just short of being the awesome experience that I want".
Some reviews were very critical. Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
gave the game a score of 2 out of 5 stars, stating that "Brink's artistically compelling soldiers can sail effortlessly over obstacles, landing acrobatic maneuvers never before seen in the genre with effortless poise—unfortunately, just about everything else lands flat on its face." 1UP
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
gave Brink a D, commenting that "Brink is unfinished. And that doesn't mean it's full of technical problems. Well, it's got those too. But mostly, it's just an unpolished, poorly executed mess of ideas." Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
also gave Brink 2 out of 5 stars, with site founder Jeff Gerstmann noting that "Flat combat and a lack of variety are just two of the things that make Brink such a disappointment."
Other reviewers criticized the character customization system for not allowing female characters. Brad Gallaway of GameCritics.com said, "...there's something very disturbing to me about having a choice between fifty different pieces of upper torso clothing or including an entire gender, and then deciding to go with the clothing. What does such a decision say about the attitude of Brink's developers, and the studio itself?" Critical Kate of CriticalHit! said, "For a company to boast how impressively customizable the characters in their first-person shooter are, only to then exclude half the population from having their character be the same gender as themselves, doesn’t exactly say to female gamers “you are welcome here.”"